The Huaca del Sol is an

adobe Adobe (from arabic: الطوب Attub ; ) is a building material made from earth and organic materials. is Spanish for mudbrick. In some English-speaking regions of Spanish heritage, such as the Southwestern United States, the term is use ...

brick pyramid built by the Moche civilization (100 AD to 800 AD) on the northern coast of what is now

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

. The pyramid is one of several ruins found near the volcanic peak of Cerro Blanco, in the coastal desert near Trujillo at the Moche Valley. The other major ruin at the site is the nearby

Huaca de la Luna Huaca de la Luna ("Temple or Shrine of the Moon") is a large adobe brick structure built mainly by the Moche (culture), Moche people of northern Peru. Along with the Huaca del Sol, the Huaca de la Luna is part of ''Huacas de Moche'', which ...

, a better-preserved but smaller temple. By 450 AD, eight different stages of construction had been completed on the Huaca del Sol. The technique was additive; new layers of brick were laid directly on top of the old, hence large quantities of bricks were required for the construction. Archeologists have estimated that the Huaca del Sol was composed of over 130 million adobe bricks and was the largest

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European col ...

adobe structure built in the Americas. The number of different makers' marks on the bricks suggests that over a hundred different communities contributed bricks to the construction of the Huacas. The Huaca del Sol was composed of four main levels. The structure was expanded and rebuilt by different rulers over the course of time. It is believed to have originally been about 50 meters in height and 340 m by 160 m at the base. Located at the center of the Moche capital city, the temple appears to have been used for ritual, ceremonial activities and as a royal residence and burial chambers. Archaeological evidence attests to these functions. During the

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

occupation of Peru in the early 17th century, colonists redirected the waters of the Moche River to run past the base of the Huaca del Sol in order to facilitate the looting of gold artifacts from the temple. The operation of the hydraulic mine greatly damaged the Huaca del Sol. In total, approximately two-thirds of the structure has been lost to erosion and such looting. The remaining structure stands at a height of 41 meters (135 feet). Looting and erosion due to

El Niño EL, El or el may refer to: Arts and entertainment Fictional entities * El, a character from the manga series ''Shugo Chara!'' by Peach-Pit * Eleven (''Stranger Things'') (El), a fictional character in the TV series ''Stranger Things'' * El, fami ...

continue to be major concerns to this day.

References

Sources

# ''Art of the Andes, from Chavin to Inca.'' Rebecca Stone-Miller, Thames and Hudson, 1995. # ''The Incas and Their Ancestors: the archaeology of Peru.'' Michael E. Moseley, Thames and Hudson, 1992.

External links

www.huacas.com

Sun and Moon Temples
Official website
Huaca del Sol placemarks
Google Earth .kmz {{authority control Moche sites Moche culture Adobe buildings and structures Archaeological sites in Trujillo, Peru Museums in Peru Archaeological museums in Peru Archaeological sites in Peru

See also

References

Sources

External links